Tinned green lentils

I would ignore that as I’ve frequently reheated various types of lentil, both dried and canned, how odd.

I'd recook lentils, but never rice. As long as you've not got meat like ham or chicken mixed in with them, it's fine. All that happens is that they dry out a bit.

I reheat as I add the stews and some soups.

It's fine to freeze small portions of the tinned lentils and reheat later. Have done this many times. Same for chickpeas or any other tinned beans.

The label is more about caution than prohibition. If you follow good food hygiene and cool quickly, store properly, and reheat thoroughly, there’s no reason to worry.

Any leftovers I have go into the freezer not the fridge. This way you can safely ignore all reheating rules, including rice.

I have a bowl of rice which has been in my freezer for several weeks now. It was put in the freezer within a couple of hours of being cooked. Sometime soon I will get it out, defrost it thoroughly, heat to boiling point and serve.

Do you know anyone who has ever had food poisoning from eating reheated lentils or rice? Have you regularly seen news reports of anyone becoming seriously ill eating home cooked food? I thought not. It may happen, but rarely, which means the vast majority of people safely, heat and reheat all kinds of foods that we are told not to, and they do so safely because they are sensible and either freeze the leftover or only keep it in the fridge a day or two and then reheat it it thoroughly to boiling point.

I recently met a person from a major rice eating country who laughed at our reluctance to reheat rice! They've always done it.

I also freeze cooked rice if I have too much, then use it in a stir fry or make egg fried rice. As long as it's heated thoroughly I cannot see any problem. Have reheated rice from Chinese take aways the next day too.
Beans etc I also freeze. I never use a whole tin of kidney beans for example, so half go from the tin into a pot and in the freezer for another meal. I would do the same with lentils.

As long as you cool quickly if heated and freeze at once, no need to waste anything.

I do know someone who was very ill from eating rice. that was from a restaurant/takeaway where the practice used to be to cook large amount of rice in the mornings, leave it in a heap and reheat later.
That was usual practice in many establishments, I understand.

Rice is fine if any remainder is chilled straight away with cold running water then frozen and thoroughly reheated. I admit I'm still not keen as cooked rice can develop toxins which are dangerous.

Don't heat the whole contents of the can.
Tip half in saucepan to heat, rest put in fridge to use at a later date.

JdotJ

Don't heat the whole contents of the can.
Tip half in saucepan to heat, rest put in fridge to use at a later date.

Yep.....as a single person - I tip out half of a can of pulses. In my case the other half goes in the freezer for future use.

Re rice - I recently bought myself sorta large icecube type moulds and have discovered it's quite an easy way to go about things to cook a couple of helpings worth at a go in my slowcooker and store the others in my freezer. Previously I was buying those packets of cooked rice - but I don't like doing that - ie because of the sunflower oil they put in them. Doing it myself = it's only rice and, as long as I take it out of my freezer a couple of hours before I want it = job done.

Aveline

I recently met a person from a major rice eating country who laughed at our reluctance to reheat rice! They've always done it.

A hotel waitress in Bali told us that every morning before coming to work she cooked something like 1.5 kg of rice, for her extended family’s meals for the day. And somehow I doubt that it was all stored all day in refrigerated conditions!

www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/home-food-fact-checker#rice

Some rice may also contain arsenic.

Rice has around 10 – 20 times more arsenic than other cereal crops. This is because it is grown in flooded conditions which make it much easier for arsenic to leave the soil and enter the rice.

Basmati rice contains lower levels than other rice
Brown rice usually contains more arsenic than white rice (because of the husk)
Growing rice organically doesn’t make a difference to levels
Rice cakes and crackers can contain levels higher than in cooked rice.
The levels of arsenic found in rice milk far exceed the amounts that would be allowed in drinking water

BBC Trust Me, I'm a Doctor

I use tinned lentils quite frequently, especially if short on time. I put the whole tin in whatever I am cooking, eg soup, a side dish with haloumi cheese, or pasta, sometimes drained, sometimes not. I will eat one third, and chill the other two thirds (in two portions) to eat the over the next couple of days.
I have not read that tinned lentils should not be reheated.

Thank you. I made a sausage casserole, ate one portion and froze three. I have always frozen rice, I just make sure it's reheated thoroughly. I prefer dried lentils for convenience but doubled in price at Sainsburys.

I had food poisoning from an Indian restaurant takeaway of rice and lentils.
You do have to be careful , but in your own kitchen you are hygienic and know how long they've been opened or cooked.
I have reheated lentils.
I've fried cooked rice .
Both without a problem.

Cooked rice is absolutely fine to reheat as long as it was cooled under cold running water, and refrigerated or frozen as soon as it’s cold. My daughter in law is Chinese and she says that eg fried rice should always be made with rice boiled, cooled and refrigerated the previous day.

Where reheated rice is a problem it is more likely to be in places that don’t have fridges, let alone clean water.

Allsorts

Thank you. I made a sausage casserole, ate one portion and froze three. I have always frozen rice, I just make sure it's reheated thoroughly. I prefer dried lentils for convenience but doubled in price at Sainsburys.

We eat a lot of lentils, and a pack of (dried) brown lentils was a weekly staple for years, but recently they are always out of stick. What is going on?

Doodledog

Allsorts

Thank you. I made a sausage casserole, ate one portion and froze three. I have always frozen rice, I just make sure it's reheated thoroughly. I prefer dried lentils for convenience but doubled in price at Sainsburys.

We eat a lot of lentils, and a pack of (dried) brown lentils was a weekly staple for years, but recently they are always out of stick. What is going on?

I quite surprised myself recently - when I looked back to one of my older cookbooks - a Rose Elliott one focused on pulses.

It didnt occur to me at the time (1970s? 1980?s) to have it stick out to me that all the pulses were dried ones. But now I'm used to the idea that, as far as I can recall, all the modern ones use tinned pulses instead.

I guess the difference is the way women have become more determined (rightly so imo) to be treated as "people" since then and there are a lot of "Him Indoors" still not doing his 50% share of the housework and cooking = a lot of time-saving instituted on cooking (ie "If he's not going to do his 50% share - then I'm going to cut the amount of time that I spend cooking one way or another = bring on the canned pulses then).

That's getting me thinking "Maybe I ought to re-investigate dried pulses - given that I'm not at risk of doing someone else's share of the cooking...as well as my own (being single)".

twiglet77

Cooked rice is absolutely fine to reheat as long as it was cooled under cold running water, and refrigerated or frozen as soon as it’s cold. My daughter in law is Chinese and she says that eg fried rice should always be made with rice boiled, cooled and refrigerated the previous day.

Where reheated rice is a problem it is more likely to be in places that don’t have fridges, let alone clean water.

I have done that with rice, frozen it then looked at it in the freezer a few weeks later and thrown it away!

A different question - how long do dried red lentils last? Tnhey were decanted into glass storage containers and I no longer have the use by date.
Do they keep indefinitely?

Looks like it's rather more of a hunt than it used to be for dried brown lentils - judging by the Tesco website - but they are on there (usually as that other sorta buying way - Marketplace).

Amazon has them - but I get the impression they're basically designed for large families or a commune in the sizes they come in. But there were standard size ones there.

Yes, I managed to get a large bag of them, but they are a pain to store and decant into the Kilner jars I usually use for pulses etc.

Dried lentils are not time consuming to cook - you can do them in a pressure cooker in no time, and in a pan they don't take much longer.

Yes, I think they keep more or less indefinitely, Allira. They might take a bit longer to cook if they are old, but my stock rotation isn't particularly reliable, and I've never come across ones that are 'off'.

I cook my lentils in the pressure cooker and them eat them gradually over the next few days, I've never heard of reheating them being problematic.

I would freeze half the contents of the tin, and use the other half, That way you are not reheating anything.